Religion: Commenmorating a Heroic Act

Gerald Phizackerley, an Anglican archdeacon, stood last week near a
rocky outcrop, surrounded by the heathclad hills and moors of the
English Midlands, reciting a nursery rhyme:

Ring-a-ring of roses, A pocketful of posies, Atishoo! Atishoo! We all
fall down.

There was no laughter from the congregation of 600 gathered in the field
outside the village of Eyam. Some worshipers seemed close to tears, for
this was a service to commemorate a rare act of heroism at the time of
the Great Plague that struck...